Pak Doktor a.k.a. Mr Doctor!

Everyone experiences back pain at some time in their life. In fact, it is in the top three complaints that people bring to the doctor’s office.

In most cases there is soft tissue inflammation, muscle spasms, or degenerative arthritis. These respond well to conservative treatments such as anti-inflammatory medicines, stretches, and osteopathic manipulative therapy. Physical modalities such as heat or cold, massage, and acupuncture are also helpful.

So when should you worry? Any loss of bowel or bladder control needs immediate attention. Surgery can release the pressure on the nerves and full function usually returns.

The longer the loss of bladder or bowel control continues without treatment, the higher the risk of permanent damage. This also includes weakness of any muscles in the legs or feet. Plus you can reduce the risks of falls and fractures.

Contrary to popular opinion, a thorough history, neurological and structural exams, plus basic X-rays of the spine can diagnose the problem 80-90% of the time. Expensive MRI studies certainly can be helpful looking at the cross-sections of the spine into the discs and spinal cord. But, in most cases it will not change the eventual conservative treatment anyway.

Consider an MRI if surgery is likely. Certainly if there is no improvement in your symptoms after several weeks or there is worsening of your pain.

Besides the obvious causes of low back pain from muscle spasms, degenerative discs and osteoarthritis, chronic structural imbalances play a major role. Wear and tear to the spine from old trauma, sports, and obesity cause the discs to lose their cushioning ability. They also may bulge or protrude backwards.

Over 50 years of age almost everyone has changes I the discs loosing height and acquiring some bone spurs. However, not everyone has pain. Again, unless the nerve root coming out of the spinal cord or the spinal cord itself is squeezed, surgery will not help. Even radiating leg pain called sciatica along with numbness and tingling in the legs can go away over time with proper treatment that includes osteopathic manipulation therapy.

Studies show that back pain sufferers who have surgery have no better pain relief or function than those who didn’t have surgery after five years passed. Certainly if surgery is recommended it is wise to get a second opinion.

When you think about what hot drinks you want to have at the morning, or for that matter, at any other time of the day, consider this: caffeine can seriously affect your health. Now it is no secret that some of the tea companies use caffeine in their products; you can of course choose those that don’t ? for example, let us take Wissotzky tea: Black tea has 60 – 70 mg of caffeine, Green tea has 15 – 20 mg while Herbal Tea would have no caffeine at all.

The variety of tastes is quite large: Raspberry Tea, Peach Tea, Nana Tea, Lemon Tea, Cherry Tea ? and most importantly ? no side effects. It may appear surprising that drinking something like tea should cause anything at all, yet it is important to know the facts. As turns out, caffeine may act upon our moods ? especially if you have a tendency towards depression ? be aware ? consuming caffeine may depress you even more.

To those of you with depression tendencies ? avoid caffeine at all cause! Especially when mixed with white sugar, it operates on the brain and may make you feel worse than you did before (brown sugar is better anyway). As you have surely by this time realized ? coffee may be your biggest enemy. Black coffee consists 150 mg of caffeine and Instant coffee 120 mg. If you’re a “heavy drinker”, do the math. And let us not forget Coca Cola. This same drink that has conquered the world so fast is another host of caffeine. It is not in vain that caffeine is compared to drugs ? indeed, some of us are real Cola-addicts! (I confess, I used to be one myself)

Please, don’t be depressed by this, my intention in precisely the opposite one: my solution was simply not drinking it anymore. There are plenty of other delicious drinks that consist of herbs, and work to improve you daily nutrition. I know that simply refusing something you like may sound hard to do, yet it is quite simple when you try.